


Gladiolus

by MidnightHalla (MidnightVagabond)



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age II
Genre: Angst, Canonical Character Death, Gen, Mementos, spoilers for literally the first 20 minutes of dragon age ii, these tags combine in exactly the way you might expect
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-19
Updated: 2019-05-19
Packaged: 2020-03-08 03:12:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18886006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MidnightVagabond/pseuds/MidnightHalla
Summary: The ground started shaking under Hawke’s boots, and everything was decidedly not under control any longer.Growing up, Lynn Hawke was never a fighter, but the Blight offers few options.





	Gladiolus

**Author's Note:**

> so i just started dragon age ii and i already have a lot of feelings

Hawke felt numb.

Everything had been under control. Relatively speaking, at least. They’d been meeting greater resistance from the darkspawn as they headed further south, but up until now, Hawke had been able to keep them at bay with her magic. And what choice did they have? Going north, back towards Lothering, would be suicide. So they went south, into the Wilds, praying for survival.

Then the ground started shaking under Hawke’s boots, and everything was decidedly not under control any longer.

Hawke barely had time to leap aside when the charging ogre came into sight, sheer survival instinct overriding her initial reaction of freezing in fear. Beside her, Carver flung himself to the ground, narrowly avoiding being trampled. By the time Hawke realized that the ogre hadn’t been targeting them, it was too late. Bethany stood in front of their mother and raised her staff in defense. A blinding plume of fire erupted against the ogre’s chest; for a moment it staggered, a snarl on its lips.

Lynn had always known her younger sister to be a brilliant mage. But alone against an ogre? Her magic wasn’t strong enough -- no one’s was. Before she could do anything to interfere, the massive darkspawn had snatched up Bethany in one hand, lifting her as though she were a toy. Lynn shouted, sending a frantic ice bolt at the beast. Her hands shook. The attack impacted its shoulder plating and shattered harmlessly against it, shards skittering in all directions.

With a roar, the ogre beat Hawke’s sister against the ground -- once, twice, before flinging her away. She rolled, eventually coming to a halt, and there she laid unmoving. Lynn couldn’t breathe. She wanted to run to Bethany’s side, the futile glow of healing magic already at her fingertips, but the ogre turned on her next and stretched its mouth wide in a horrible, bloodstained smile.

Looking at this thing, the prospect of defeating it seemed so hopeless. Lynn wasn’t a fighter. But she owed it to Bethany to try. So she braced herself, frost crackling along her staff, and with a shuddering breath she began to rain hell down on the creature that had murdered her sister.

\-----

Hawke was barely standing once the dust had cleared. She felt weary to her bones; the sort of exhaustion that came from a mage burning through all of their magic reserves. One of her legs had been crushed and blood seeped through the fabric of her boot. But more importantly, the ogre was dead, and what remained of her family was starting to gather around the spot where Bethany still lay. She limped over to join them, her staff becoming a makeshift crutch, and stifled a sob when she properly saw her sister’s broken body. Somehow, her mother’s words seemed to bite deeper than the ogre’s claws had -- this was her fault. If she’d only been quicker with her magic, if only she had drawn its attention before it could reach Bethany, if only…

But there was little time to mourn. Not here, in the midst of a Blight. The darkspawn were closing in on them once more, and the moment was gone, the survivors preparing themselves for another fight. Hawke allowed herself only a few brief seconds to linger beside her sister. Gently, she untied the red scarf from Bethany’s neck, and she could almost hear her sister’s indignant voice insisting, not for the first time, that it was _called a kerchief_. She fastened it loosely around her own throat as she rose, having to lean heavily on her staff as she did so. Then Hawke summoned her last ounces of magic. Darkspawn were coming over the hill, another wave in an unending tide, and her face was a stone mask streaked by tears as she felled them one by one.

She would not allow the Blight to lay another claw on her family.

**Author's Note:**

> gladiolus; a flower signifying remembrance.
> 
> i discovered, while working on the "mass exodus" achievement (reach kirkwall with each character class), that the ogre kills a different sibling depending on your choice of character. which got me thinking about how a mage hawke and bethany would've grown up learning magic together, and the fact that losing such a connection would have made a huge impact on hawke. i don't really feel like the emotional reaction from hawke, in the cutscene, was quite there. so here i am!


End file.
